Digital Manga/Manhua/Manhwa
Recently I checked out a few digital manga from the library and really enjoyed them, which sent me on a whirlwind tour of digital comics. This is an infodump page for whatever links and discoveries I find interesting.
Researching Comics
I like MangaDex because the listings include links to official releases and alternate titles.
I originally started using Manga Updates to determine which publishers have translated books but it ended up being a useful research tool for finding recs. Like MyAnimeList, the user reviews tend to be more useful and on-point that reviews on some of the other review sites.
Reading Digital Comics
I have long avoided reading on my Android tablet because of concerns with my sleep cycle but reading comics on Kindle sucks. My old and busted Kindle routinely freezes and shuts down when trying to read through image-heavy books. I started using Overdrive's Libby library reading app and it worked really well, offering crisp images and white backgrounds. My only complaint with Libby is it doesn't allow a single-page portrait view. I usually zoom in on the panels and read about a third of the page at a time.
The free open-source Android reader Tachiyomi allows single-page view and I have found it very useful for reading fan translations. (See also: Tachiyomi forks) TachiyomiSY has several source extensions installed by default and it includes a webtoon scrolling mode for manhwa.
Manga
- Manga: Japanese comics, r/manga
- Kodomo - children demographic
- Shonen - teenage boy demographic
- Shojo - teenage girl demographic
- Seinen - men demographic
- Josei - women demographic
Check out Where Can I Read Manga? This listing is for sites that provide all the chapters of some manga, either free or for a subscription. Shonen Jump started as an attempt to push-back against piracy by offering a low-cost option to read manga that was more convenient than piracy and it looks like the industry may be moving toward this model.
- Azuki / App - Subscription app ($4.99 USD/month), Kodansha
- INKR - INKR Extra subscription service ($4.99 USD/month), but coins are still needed for some chapters
- Manga Planet - Subscription service ($6.99 USD/month)
- Manga Plus - Official free distribution of some titles, but other titles are limited (only first and last chapters, no in-between)
- Mangamo - Subscription app ($4.99 USD/month)
- Shonen Jump - Subscription service ($1.99 USD/month), notable for simulpubs, Viz
Manhwa / Webtoons
- Manhwa: Korean comics, r/manhwa
- Sonyeo - teenage girl demographic
- Sonyeon - teenage boy demographic
- Yeoseong - women demographic
- Cheongnyeon - men demographic
Webtoons are generally long, single panel full-color comics that are suitable for reading on smartphones. The current purchase model is to provide the first few episodes or chapters are free and make subsequent chapters available for a platform-specific currency (coins, points, tickets, etc). A lot of these platforms require accounts and app usage to fully read. I'm not a fan of platform-specific currency, it's needlessly anti-consumer. I don't understand why all these platforms make currency conversion so confusing when the pricing itself is reasonable (like, 40 cents a chapter). Why can't I just pay $4 USD by PayPal or credit card to read 10 chapters of an ongoing serial? As far as I can tell the current pricing model is simply a way to obfuscate pricing (so people accidentally spend more than they intended to) and force customers to rely on platform currency that will expire if not used quickly.
Anyway, check out u/inanis' A Price list for various Manhua and Manhwa for some help on pricing conversions.